la.foodblogging

This is no. 3 in a 7-part series on L.A. Farmers Markets at The Delicious Life.

Though the produce and food offerings are similar from market to market, and many of the represetative farmers are the same, I’m finding the vibe at each market is different. The Westwood market is more of a social gathering and less a marketplace for cooks on the look for dinner ingredients. I remember walking down to the market from campus for lunch, a refreshing break from Baja Fresh, Panda Express, and (God Forbid) Taco Bell, in Ackerman. Lots of blue and green scrubs, white lab coats, and backpacks, buying long bags of kettle korn and newspaper-wrapped flowers. A small band is playing live music in the dining area that’s set up in the center where people are enjoying crepes, tamales, galbee, shish kebabs. Oddly enough, there’s also a group of fobby (and I use the word “fobby� in the nicest way possible) little Asian girls in uniforms with cameras whose tour must include big university. Yep, it’s a bit more of a scene here.

It’s late in the day, so some of the farmers are slowly shutting down, packing crates, folding tables, and breaking down tents. A woman with a slight, pretty accent is calling out an end of market special on cherries. I have to wonder if she’s really a farmer; she’s tall, slender, very pretty, and looks like an off-runway model. Like the industry tradeshows I’ve been, have farmers, too, started hiring booth babes to help sell their wares? The cherries by themselves were beautiful.

The challenging part of my market mission hasn’t been about getting to the various markets. I should be a military stategist. Meticulously manipulating meetings to fit with the market schedule, getting faster and faster with the alt-tab to hide my computer screen as people walk by, clicking to sigalert.com to check on traffic, dashing to the printer before anyone else to snap up maps. I’m good. It’s trying to get myself to buy something unfamiliar that has been a bit of a failure. I bought Brussels sprouts. I bought asparagus. So, Thursday, it’s an alligator pear. Okay, so an alligator pear is really just an avocado. I can’t help but take home the vegetables I love.

It was originally going to be guacamole, but when sliced open, the avocado was still pretty firm. The other two alligator pears would have to sulk in a paper bag for a few days on the counter for being so fresh. This one became an avocado, mango, and shrimp salsa, served with some flour tortilla chips I baked (not fried). It’s not quite a ceviche, since the shrimp were marinated and grilled first, but next time, I may try it with raw ahi or maybe even scallops instead. I also have this notion of making it a cocktail, adding tequila in with the lime juice I used. I may have to leave out the mango though – who knew a mango allergy could come out of nowhere? *sad* I love mangoes. Now if it were an avocado allergy, I don’t know what I’d do with myself.

By sarah (see more of her posts). You can find more of sarah's writing at her own website The Delicious Life